Reinterpretation of Islam in Turkey

The Country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran (Quran)… the Turkish state has come to see the Hadith as having an often negative influence on a society it is in a hurry to modernize and believes it responsible for obscuring the original values of Islam. (Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts, BBC News, http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/impapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/...)

Musta fa Kemal Ataturk abolished Khilafat in Turkey after the First World War in an attempt to secularize the country. The measures that he introduced were drastic and extreme. For instance, he banned the Arabic script and introduced the Roman script in its place. He had also banned the Fez cap together with the traditional dress code; the women were forced to wear the European dress. He also introduced a Republican form of democracy in the country.

These measures lasted for quite some time after his death and then the resurgence of traditional Islam began. The country is still struggling to find equilibrium between Islam and secularism. The current effort is to find this equilibrium, if possible.

The reinterpretation of Hadith has now been undertaken by the Government to modernize the Turkish society. This project is underway but the news that such a measure is in the pipeline has been released only to BBC News; it is still not released to the Turkish people for fear of severe reaction (backlash?).

Reinterpretation of Quran (and Hadith) is allowed in principle although no effective reinterpretation has ever taken place in the Muslim world. Reinterpretation always leads to controversy and disputation. Such an effort seems to be admirable if guidance is indeed to be sought from the Quran and Hadith. Sharia is derived from the Quran and Hadith and it needs to be liberalized to say the least.

Although the faithful believers believe that the Quran provides eternal guidance to the humankind and it is immutable, many of its stories and injunctions are rooted in the earliest traditions of Islam which are more than 1400 years old. In a way, the Muslim world seems to be intellectually frozen in the seventh century A.D. while rest of the world has completely changed in every respect. Our means of transportation, for example, are now mechanical in contrast to those of the early Islam (animal transportation). Likewise, developments in electronics have completely overhauled our society. While the question whether music is allowed in Islam is still debated, almost every urban household has at least one TV and a music system. No body could ever think of a digital computer in the seventh century. It is an essential part of human life now. Even if the traditionalists aspire to literally Islamize (which in most quarters is believed for going back to the lifestyle of the 7th century Arabia), no sane person would suggest to throw the computer out of the window. No body seems to know where to draw the line.

I did not really undertake a critical study of the Hadith for the purpose of writing this article (although I have read Sahib Bukhari off and on); nonetheless I am reproducing a few of Hadith here in the following to show how irrelevant they are for our life today.

According to Hadith number 604 in Book 71 (Medicine) of Sahih Bukhari: Narrated Karb bin Ujrah: “The Prophet came to me during the period of Al-Hudibiya, while I was lighting fire underneath a cooking pot and lice were falling down my head.” He said, “Do your lice hurt you?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Shave your head and fast for three days or feed six poor persons, or slaughter a sheep as a sacrifice.” Sacrifice for what? It is understandable that due to scarcity of water those days, one could not afford to take a daily bath and had lice in his hair. The simplest solution was to shave the head (which the Prophet suggested) and be done with it. What relevance does this Hadith have in our times? Even the lifestyle in modern Arabia has changed.

In the same book, Hadith number 614 reads as follows:

“A man came to the Prophet and said: ‘My brother has got loose motions.’ The Prophet said, ‘Let him drink honey.’ The man again (came) and said, ‘I made him drink honey but that made him worse.’ The Prophet said, ‘Allah has said the Truth and the abdomen of your brother has told a lie.’”

Nowadays, you don’t even need to go to a doctor for this ailment; you can buy a suitable medicine off the shelf in a drug store to cure loose motions.

And Hadith number 619 states:

Narrated Nafi: Abdullah bin Umar said, the Prophet said, “Fever is from the heat of Hell, so put it out (cool it) with water.” Nafi added, Abdullah used to say, “O Allah! Relieve us from the punishment (when he suffered from fever).” People now routinely take a couple of doses of Tylenol to cure fever.

In Book 5 (Bathing [Ghusl]), Hadith number 248 states:

Narrated Abu Salama: “Aisha’s brother and I went to Aisha and he asked her about the bath of the Prophet. She brought a pot containing about a Sa’ of water and took a bath and poured it over her head and at what time there was a screen between her and us.”

The task of reinterpreting and modernizing Islam is quite difficult because it is deeply rooted in the past. It seems better for a Muslim country to leave it alone for individual practice, and frame a secular Constitution with suitable elements from Islam for the purpose of identity, to manage the state affairs. The Muslim world has struggled a great deal to let Islam play a dominant role in the state affairs but it seems impossible to do so without encroaching upon the rights of the minorities and allowing the material and rational development which is constantly taking place in the rest of the world.

You simply can not go back in time.